Toy.



110.855.919. PATENTED JUNE 4, 1907.

H. J. WOOD.

APPLICATION IILHD AUG; 44444 6.

HERBERT J. WOOD, OF MOUNT CLEMENS, MICHIGAN.

-TOY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 4, 1907.

Application filed August 4,1906. Serial No. 329.143.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT J. Woon, a citizen of the United States, residing at Mount Clemens, county of Macomb, State of Michigan, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Toys; and I declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to toys; it has for its object an improved puzzle adapted and intended to exercise the skill of the operator.

In the drawings :Figure 1, shows the toy in perspective. Fig. 2, is a side elevation of the spiral track.

The puzzle consists of a small cylindrical box or receptacle 1, with a transparent cover 2, and with a helical spiral track 3, starting from the side and base of the cylindrical receptacle 1, and passing spirally inward and upward to a tablet or plate 4, which fills the interior of the inner coil of the spiral. The plate 4 is provided near that part of it which lies next to the incoming turn of the spiral 4 with an opening or trap 5, large enough to permit any one of the balls hereinafter mentioned to drop through said opening. The track which leads to the plate has a vertical outer protection wall 9, and a narrow horizontal ledge 8 inside the curve of the spiral, the two being of sufficient size to retain a ball that is rolling on said track and mounting thereon under the action of centrifugal force given to the ball by whirling the receptacle with the hand.

Near the center of the plate 4 are indentations or perforations 6 so small in size that a ball dropping into the indentation or perforation will rest therein, but not of sufficient depth or of SH'lTlClGIlt size to prevent the displacement of the ball from such indentation or perforation if any considerable amount of force is given to the receptacle in manipulatin it.

Within the receptacle are placed a number'of balls 7, preferably the number being equal to the number of indentations in the to the bottom of the box.

plate, or the number of those holes which are so small in diameter that the balls willnot drop through them.

To work the puzzle the receptacle is given a whirling motion with the hand, which causes the balls to travel to the outside of the receptacle on the floor thereof and thence to travel up and around the inclined spiral until they reach the central plate 4. Should one attempt to transfer the balls along the track by slowly rolling the same around its center, as may be done, the balls will travel along the track until they reach the entrance to the plate and the hole 5, at which place there is no ledge, and all balls reaching this hole when the puzzle is manipulated in this manner will drop through the hole and escape It is necessary to give the receptacle the whirling motion while it is held horizontally and to so adjust the motion and force that the balls traveling along the flanged incline will leap over the hole 5 and reach the table 4 for their final resting place.

The difficulty of manipulating the toy properly may be increased by designating or indicating the balls in various ways, as by coloring them, and requiring that certain colored balls be brought to rest in correspondingly colored rests in the plate, or a single one of'the balls may be colored or otherwise differentiated from the other balls with the requirement that this single ball be brought to rest in the central hole of the plate 4.

What I claim is 1. A toy, having in combination a containing receptacle, a spiral track having a protecting outer wall and a horizontal flange and a central tablet terminating the track, said tablet having a trap hole near its point of union with the track, substantially as described.

2. In combination with a containing receptacle, a spiral track starting from thebottom of the receptacle and terminating at a higher plane with a central tablet, and a central tablet provided with a trap hole near the entrance thereto from said spiral track, substantially as described.

In combination with an inclosed receptacle, an upwardly inclined spiral track In testimony whereof, I, sign this specificatlcierewithin, a perforated ttblet terminating tion in the presence of tW0 Witnesses.

t is same, and aluralit 0 balls ada ted to travel on said ti ack ari d t0 find lo gment HERBERT WOOD in the smaller of said perforations, being of a Witnesses:

size to pass through a perforation of larger CHARLES F. BURTON,

size therein, substantially as described. MAY E. KOTT. 

